In the same way that Willie Nelson is able to appeal to both rednecks and hippies, prog metal wizards Tool find faithful fans in everyone from Cro-Magnon WWE Smackdown attendees to jazz nerds who read nothing but music theory textbooks and Dungeon Master’s Guides. There’s just something about front man…
A physicist, a neurosurgeon, a martial artist, a rock musician and a comic book hero walk into a bar. His name is Buckaroo Banzai. The savior of the eighth dimension is multitalented and never boring. His team of assistants/rock and roll band, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, lives together in a…
If Superman Returns attempted to resurrect the Man of Steel as mythic hero, the season’s other Superman movie wants to disabuse us of any such childish illusions. Glamorously adult, Hollywoodland purports to part the veil on the circumstances by which George Reeves, the actor who embodied the superhero on ’50s…
A number of pregnant mysteries arise with the new remake of Robin Hardy’s 1973 cult-remembered genre work–namely, what’s in this kind of malarkey for gender combat provocateur Neil LaBute, and why was such a high-profile film tossed into theaters last Friday without letting critics see it first? The two simple…
Like Willy Loman, Classical Acting Company’s Death of a Salesman aspires to greatness and comes up well short of expectations. Arthur Miller’s 1949 drama is the heaving granddaddy of American tragedies. The play demands so much from its actors, designers and director that if anyone isn’t up to the task,…
United 93 (Universal) A suggestion to those who’ve put off watching the year’s most wrenching and essential film: Before rolling the feature, first watch the documentary in which the families of those who died on the plane give the filmmakers their blessing, without reservation. If the mother, father, and sister…
The mall in Dead Rising is pretty much like any other you’ve visited. There’s a bunch of women’s clothing stores, a movie theater, and of course the obligatory food court. The only real difference is that it’s teeming with enough zombies to fill a stadium. Dead Rising opens with freelance…
The Abbott and Costello Show: 100th Anniversary Collection, Season One (Passport) Ace Ventura Deluxe Double Feature (Warner Bros.) Amarcord: The Criterion Collection (Criterion) Anne of Avonlea (Koch Vision) Blade Runner: Director’s Cut (Warner Bros.) Broken Trail (Sony) Clive Barker’s The Plague (Sony) Commander in Chief: 2-Disc Inaugural Edition Part 2…
Every time I eat a doughnut, I think of Brian Regan. The comedian, so adept at turning simple everyday tales into side-splitting anecdotes, tackled doughnut shops, doughnut ladies and related doughnut issues in an act that challenged my ability to control urination. He didn’t address “holes” or “dough” or anything…
In the summer months, Mom turns to her “dark cult of Angel worship.” Funny, according to Amazon.com’s book description, that’s what the protagonist discovers in Melanie Wells’ The Soul Hunter. Wait. We can’t seem to find any references to right field, bull pens or batting statistics; we just see nods…
“Hey dude, how’s that Pokey O’s ice cream sandwich with the mint chocolate chip Blue Bell and the oatmeal cinnamon cookies?” “Oh, it’s only heaven!” “Man, what was it like getting backstage at the White Stripes show and playing checkers with Meg White?” “Only heaven, dude!” “Honey, did you enjoy…
A comedy club is simply no place for “safe” comedy—that’s what Jay Leno and afternoon Comedy Central are for. See, when I shell out a $15 or $20 cover (plus the two-item minimum), I want to hear the kind of foul-mouthed subversion that would make a suburban soccer mom cry…
Dinner theater murder mysteries are perfect for those of us who think that theatrical stage works are severely lacking in delicious appetizers and mock audience fatalities. Powerful dramatic scenes dripping with human pathos are all well and good. But throw in a cheese tray and have the dude two rows…
In the early ’70s, crowds flocked to see Enter the Dragon, and all of a sudden, everybody was kung-fu fighting. While Bruce Lee has gone to the great dojo in the sky, one legend lives on: Chuck Norris. More than a faux Texas Ranger, more than an Internet punch line,…
We’ll go ahead and tell you what Women and Horses is all about to spare you from stumbling upon the descriptions of something else altogether were you to Google the play’s title. Sheilah is a rough, tough, bronco-riding badass. With the help of her leathery, weathered guardian Flo and the…
Jeez, what is up with you parents these days? You start prepping your kids for the SAT in preschool. Between soccer, music lessons and specialized summer camps, every minute of the poor tykes’ lives is programmed. Now comes this—an announcement of luge slider class and tryouts in Southlake, for kids…
Sure, you’ve got a great job. Your savings account is looking good. You’re on target for retirement at 60. And Junior’s college fund is well on its way. But what’s the plan for when you’re pushing up daisies? Is everything taken care of? Do you even know how to start…
The difference between creativity and cheating in digital art is a thin one—probably just one pixel wide. At their best, computer-assisted elements of design and shading create other-worldly effects that paints, sculptures and even glass refraction can’t replicate. Of course, at their worst, the effects are a blurry, synthetic cop-out…
Medusa—that’s a heady name for a winery, but gnarly old grape vines do resemble writhing snakes protruding from a stubborn head. Only the vines have not yet turned into stone, surviving 100 years of dry-farming and hand-picking in the California soil. Several private, small-lot Zinfandel vineyards now yield their magic…
Pat Summerall is a legendary broadcaster, the longtime ying to John Madden’s yap. But underneath his cool, soft-spoken exterior lies a troubled, haunted man plagued by alcoholism. Until he disclosed his problems a few years ago, no one would have guessed that he was the one in the booth who…
Did you know a Texas wine had a hand in ending the Cold War? In 1990, then President Bush served Soviet President Gorbachev a 1987 Llano Estacado Chardonnay with shrimp and crabmeat salad at Camp David. Texas is also home to such wines as Cap Rock, Delaney Vineyards and Pheasant…
As culinary crimes go, Sweeney Todd is one of the most delicious. The barber who seeks revenge on the judge who framed him discovers he has a thirst for blood and is soon slicing the upper-crust throats of 19th-century London. He teams up with an enterprising neighbor who has a…
